WAPA's Increased Acitivities

Mike McDonald and I met with WAPA and the Bureau of Reclamation on Tuesday (7/17) and learned some interesting information about their relationship with PG&E. On Oct 28th PG&E filed to change the nature of the interconnect and banking agreement with WAPA. Currently PG&E looks at the imbalance energy (positive or negative) at the end of the month and then figures out what charges are due either party. The imbalance account is calculated by aggregating MWHrs for the entire month. As a result, WAPA would have a deficit in the account and then deposit a huge amount of off peak energy to balance out.

As of OCt 28th all this changes - WAPA has to submit a balanced schedule on an hourly basis or else be subject to PG&E imbalance prices (which are probably a combination of contracts and spot prices). I believe this means that WAPA is going to have to be more diligent about its forcasts and more active in the real time and preschedule markets. We probably need to gear up our relationship with the appropriate people over there to make sure that we are on their phone list.

Stewart